


The Boleyn Dragon

by mihrsuri



Category: Temeraire - Naomi Novik, The Tudors (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Alternate Universe - Historical, Female Friendship, Gen, arthurian dorkery, my shiny human the dragon edition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 09:24:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11894772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mihrsuri/pseuds/mihrsuri
Summary: Anne Boleyn finds a dragon and a dragon finds her (Temeraire AU). From a prompt gifted to me by a friend (feather)  'Anne Boleyn is beloved of one of those acid spitting dragons - whether anyone else likes it or not'





	The Boleyn Dragon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Feather (lalaietha)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lalaietha/gifts).



When Anne Boleyn finds a dragon egg it happens like this. 

She’s five years old. It’s a warm day and she’s playing in the gardens of Hever having escaped from her nursery and now Anne is looking for flowers and for adventure. And there is. A dragon egg that she at first thinks is a rock but oh, oh it could be a dragon egg she thinks to herself. 

(there are so few dragons left in England after years of war and plague - even now when there has been peace for years dragons are not even remotely common - you might see a few small feral dragons in the remote north but nothing here, nothing in the south). 

As it turns out little Anne is right. The dragon egg hatches and out comes a small spiky black dragonlet who immediately nuzzles into Anne and hisses fiercely if anyone comes near or tries to take her away. That night the dragonlet sleeps on the end of Anne’s bed, keeping her feet warm and almost purring. 

Anne names her dragon Nimue after the kind and wise Lady of the Lake who ruled her kingdom and gave aid to Arthur. Nimue will let her family come close (George is her favourite as it turns out) but she will hiss burning drops if anyone else comes near or tries to separate her from Anne. 

“She is my lady” Nimue says firmly. “I am not leaving her” 

And so Nimue goes with her to The Netherlands and to France where they both make a sensation and Queen Marguerite gives Anne a book on dragons. She reads it to Nimue in the gardens of the palace. 

“You are a longwing” Anne tells her dragon who makes a pleased sound. The book does not tell much more - longwing sightings having been few and far between in recent memory and the taming of such a dragon is even rarer (there are whispers of a tale of the Empress Matilda and a dragon who perished of plague or the story of a warrior maiden who rode a black dragon into battle to save her people but they are only whispers now). 

When Anne Boleyn rides Nimue it is the most beautiful feeling in the world. She has never felt freer - here between the sky and the sea with the wind in her hair and her dragon with her. 

(They swim, Nimue and Anne in a deserted cove and the water is warm and silky against her skin and Nimue splashes Anne with her tail). 

When Anne Boleyn returns to England with Nimue they are both grown, Nimue still hisses at strangers and courtiers point and whisper about them - about Anne the girl with a dragon. Nimue does not like them, these whisperers - she wants to spit at them with her lethal breath but Anne tells her to pay them no mind, that it is only words, only gossip.   
“But they hurt you” Nimue hisses and Anne hugs her dragon, her first and best friend and feels warm. “I will not let them hurt you Anne”

**Author's Note:**

> (Notes: So as it turns out Le Morte D’Arthur was published around 1485. And Nimue was a really interesting version of The Lady of The Lake that I think bb!Anne would have loved)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Anne and Nimue (the No Beheading Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15987209) by [mific](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mific/pseuds/mific)




End file.
